Ontario had a record-high number of homicides last year according to a Statistics Canada report released on Wednesday.
The government data-gathering agency reported Ontario's 2018 homicide rate was the highest since 1991 with the greatest increases in Toronto and Windsor.
"The record number for Ontario was mostly the result of the increase of 49 homicides that occurred in the census metropolitan area of Toronto," Stats Canada said.
Toronto had 142 victims last year while Windsor had 10 murders in 2018, a jump from three the previous year. London had six murders last year compared to seven in 2017. Chatham only had one murder last year when Nick Laprise from Dover Township was found dead in Wallaceburg on April 18, 2018.
Statistics Canada said Ontario had 69 more victims than in 2017, which was the largest year-over-year increase and the highest number of homicides since data collection began in 1961.
The report also said the number of murders across Canada has gone down but it's still higher than the national average of a decade ago. Statistics Canada said homicides in 2018 dropped by four per cent to 651. That's 15 fewer victims than the previous year.
"While homicide continues to be a relatively rare occurrence, representing less than 0.2 per cent of all violent crimes in Canada in 2018, homicide rates are considered benchmarks for levels of violent activity both in Canada and internationally," the report read.
The report also showed 36 more firearm-related homicides across Ontario in 2018 with Toronto accounting for 14 of them.
The good news is that firearm-related homicides were down for the first time in five years across Canada. The national rate of firearm-related homicides declined eight per cent in 2018, which is the first decrease in the percentage of homicides committed with a firearm since 2013.
Stats Canada also reported gang-related homicides are down for the first time in four years. In 2018, gang-related homicides decreased five per cent, falling for the first time since 2014. However, the rate of gang-related homicides in 2018 was still the second-highest rate of gang-related homicides in Canada since comparable data was first collected in 2005.
The report stated that most victims knew their killer.
"The majority of homicides in Canada are committed by an acquaintance (34 per cent), a family member (33 per cent), or a stranger (19 per cent)," the report specified.
Statistics Canada rounds out the report by writing that spousal homicide was the lone type of homicide to increase in 2018 with nine more victims.
In contrast, there were 31 fewer homicides committed by someone in a criminal relationship such as drug dealers and their clients.
